Jun. 10, 2013

Written by

Detroit Free Press Staff Writer

Had Turkia Awada Mullin stayed in her job as Wayne County’s economic development director for just one more week, she likely would have qualified for lifetime medical benefits at taxpayer expense.

But because her length of service is calculated at seven years, 11 months and 26 days, she lost out, a judge ruled.

“Because (Mullin) was not employed by the county for eight calendar years, she does not qualify for benefits under the resolution,” Wayne County Circuit Judge Maria Oxholm wrote in an order filed Friday.

It was a legal setback for Mullin, who has been locked in a series of court battles since shortly after her $200,000 severance payment from the county sparked controversy and led to her firing from Metro Airport. But Mullin scored a significant victory in April when an arbitrator awarded her $712,000, and she currently has another lawsuit pending seeking an additional $112,353 from Metro Airport.

Mullin’s lawyer, Raymond Sterling, said he is reviewing all legal options in response to Friday’s ruling.

“We believe the judge erred in her analysis that seven years, 11 months and 26 days was not sufficient,” Sterling said today. “The county’s practice was to provide the ... benefits to employees by rounding up their years of service.”

He added that the first person to receive such benefits, former County Commissioner Bryan Amann — for whom they are now named — served only seven years and 10 months.

Oxholm’s 19-page ruling includes a lengthy analysis of the county resolution that created the benefits. Deborah Gordon, an employment law expert who is suing the county in a separate case, predicted an appeal.

“But so much of this is flat up political they are probably going to take a shot at getting a Court of Appeals panel that wants to give her extra time,” she said.

Mullin has been unemployed since the airport board fired her as CEO on Oct. 31, 2011, just two months into a three-year contract that was to pay her $250,000 a year.

Mullin sparked controversy in September 2011 when the county acknowledged paying her a $200,000 severance after she quit to take the airport’s top job. The Airport Authority fired her amid the controversy over the severance, which she eventually repaid.

(Page 2 of 3)

In April, an arbitrator awarded Mullin $712,000 — the balance of her three-year contract — ruling the airport authority didn’t have just cause to fire her.

Mullin sued the county last year after it denied her access to the lifetime health benefit perk enjoyed by at least 51 former appointees. Mullin argued in briefs to the court that her two months of service at the airport should be counted toward her total to get her over the eight-year threshold because the county had allowed that practice for at least two other people.

Oxholm rejected that argument.

“She cites no authority that indicates that the county is bound by the past decisions of its directors or other officials,” Oxholm ruled.

The controversial lifetime health care benefits were created in 1994 and came to be known as Amann benefits after the commissioner who helped establish them. The Free Press reported last year that 51 former high-ranking Wayne County appointees were receiving the benefits, which are supposed to vest after eight years.

Among those on the plan are Bernard Kilpatrick, father of convicted former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick; Wilbourne Kelley, the only member of the McNamara administration to serve prison time as part of the last Wayne County scandal; and former county commissioner Arthur Blackwell, who agreed in April to repay $264,000 after pleading no contest to an embezzlement charge related to his time as emergency financial manager for the City of Highland Park.

Not all of them served the county for eight years. Charlie Williams, a former top aide to County Executive Robert Ficano, worked only three years and received them, as did W. Curt Boeller, who worked less than four years. The county previously has credited appointees for service at other municipal governments.

(Page 3 of 3)

Williams had worked for the City of Detroit, and Boeller was a former Brownstown Township supervisor. Any non-county service had to be approved by former personnel director Tim Taylor, Ficano spokeswoman June West told the Free Press last year.

Critics complain Ficano’s overly generous pay and benefits for appointees have contributed to the county’s financial difficulty. In addition to the Amann benefits, Ficano offered early retirement incentives for appointees in 2011.

After Mullin was fired by the airport, she applied to receive an early retirement incentive from the county. She was shot down on that request as well because she couldn’t prove 20 years of service.

Ficano allowed appointees to buy credit for as many as six additional years at discounted rates. Mullin sought to buy up to six years’ worth of credits for her time in the military, though she acknowledged serving less than two years in active service.

Oakland County ended lifetime medical benefits for its retirees, instead offering them medical savings accounts. Macomb County still offers the the benefits, but in 2006 upped the vesting period from eight years of service to 15.

West said last year that the county can’t estimate the annual cost of the program because the county is self-insured, and costs vary based on claims filed.

A 2011 survey of large employers by benefit consulting firm Mercer pegged the cost of such benefits at about $11,300 annually for retirees who aren’t old enough to receive Medicare and about $4,600 annually for those who are.